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China extends prime-time ban on foreign cartoons

The Chinese government announced on Wednesday it would extend its prime-time ban on foreign cartoons, as part of its plan to further reduce the broadcasting of foreign animations.

BEIJING, Feb 20 (Reuters) - China will extend its
prime-time ban on foreign cartoons by an hour and demand that
local television stations seek approval from censors before
broadcasting them, the country's media watchdog said in a
circular.

From May 1, foreign cartoons would be prohibited from 5
p.m. to 9 p.m. on local channels, China's State Administration
of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said, extending a 2006
order that had banned cartoons from 5 pm to 8 pm.

The watchdog also demanded TV stations observe a daily
broadcast ratio of 7:3 for Chinese-made cartoons versus foreign
cartoons, as part of a campaign to "provide a favourable
environment for the innovation of China's cartoon industry,"
SARFT said in a statement posted on it's Web site
(www.sarft.gov.cn) late on Tuesday.

The statement praised past restrictions on foreign cartoons
for "expanding the output of local content and continuously
improving the quality of works", adding that 2007 broadcast
minutes of home-grown cartoons had increased 23 percent on the
previous year.

It also asked broadcasters and administrators to increase
funding to buy and develop local cartoons.

The regulation follows an order last week by China's
General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) to
producers to cleanse their broadcasts of ghosts, monsters and
other video content made "for the sole purpose of seeking
terror and horror".

Following a barrage of criticism from bemused Internet
surfers, GAPP said Chinese classics with supernatural elements
and movies such as those in the "Harry Potter" series would be
exempted from the crackdown, in comments published by the
official People's Daily on Wednesday.

China, where DVDs of graphic, pirated sex and horror movies
are available on most street corners, is keen to step up its
control of the cultural arena ahead of the Beijing Olympics in
August, which are seen as a chance to showcase the country's
rising political and economic clout.